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While the first edition of the PokerStars Isle of Man International Chess Tournament was a resounding success in October 2014, this year's tournament promises to put the Isle of Man on the global chess map for good. Thanks to the continued partnership with PokerStars and the Scheinberg family, the 2015 edition will not only be the strongest open tournament ever to be held in the British Isles, but also one of the strongest worldwide.

We are now just one month away from the start of the 2015 PokerStars Isle of Man International Chess Tournament, sponsored by PokerStars and the Scheinberg family, with assistance from the Isle of Man Department of Economic Development.

With just under 3 months to go until the start of the 2015 PokerStars Isle of Man International Chess Tournament (sponsored by PokerStars and the Scheinberg family), we have 80 players from 24 countries entered for the Masters, which is already 7 more than for the start-list of the 2014 event. To date, we have 63 titled players, including 35 GMs, 18 IMs and 10 players in the world's top 100.

After 9 days of hard-fought and thrilling chess, the PokerStars Isle of Man International Chess Tournament 2014 came to a close with a brilliant triumph by Nigel Short, who had entered the tournament as 9th seed and finished on 7.5/9, a full point ahead of the rest of the field!

Once again, the players absolutely spoilt chess fans from all over the world with exciting, high-quality games yesterday. In fact, this might well have been the most decisive round in an open tournament I have ever witnessed, with only 8 draws on 36 boards!

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John Saunders reports: the 2018 Chess.com Isle of Man International was won by Radoslaw Wojtaszek of Poland after a play-off match with Arkadij Naiditsch of Azerbaijan. The two players led going into the last round and drew their ninth round game to finish on 7/9 while none of the four players on 6/8 managed to win in order to tie with them. They each take home a cheque for £37,500 with Wojtaszek also receiving a further £500 for winning the blitz play-off. The initial two-game blitz was tied on 1-1 but Wojtaszek chose White in the Armageddon game and duly won. Seven players finished on 6½: Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Grischuk (both Russia), Hikaru Nakamura, Jeffery Xiong (both USA), Wang Hao (China), Gawain Jones (England) and Baskaran Adhiban (India).

John Saunders reports: another pulsating day’s chess saw four 2700+ rated players bite the dust, all bar one beaten by players less highly rated than themselves, and in one case more than 200 points adrift. Two leaders emerge from the smoke of battle, Arkadij Naiditsch (Azerbaijan) and Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Poland), who now both have 6½/8, while four more players are half a point behind them and are still in with a chance of a share in the top prize – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), Wang Hao (China), Gawain Jones (England) and Jeffery Xiong (USA).

John Saunders reports: another remarkable round at the Villa Marina saw the number of leaders increase by one – the same names as per the round six leader board, plus England’s perennial numero uno, Mickey Adams. There was some fantastic chess played, which it gives me great pleasure to report upon. Before we move on, let’s just record the seven leaders’ names for the record: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Poland), Wang Hao (China), Arkadij Naiditsch (Azerbaijan), Mickey Adams (England) and Jeffery Xiong (USA) all have 5½ out of 7.